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After an hour, a man entered, so Dennis ran across the street and asked to be let in.

Inside, he found a tiny office, where pigeonholes hung from the wall. They were labelled with the names of dozens of different firms, including Imperial Trustee.

Dennis pulled the letters from the pigeonhole and rifled through them, only stopping when he found his envelope, still unopened. He says: ‘I felt sick to my stomach and utterly humiliated. If a truck had been passing at that moment, I would have thrown myself under it.

‘I thought of how hard I worked for the money and how not getting it back would have haunted me for the rest of my life.’

Dennis is not alone in his predicament. Regulators are concerned at the number of people transferring out of final-salary pension schemes, after being enticed by promises of getting some, or all, of their cash early.

Many are also told they will get a far better return in the new pension than in the old.

Some, though, will end up becoming targets for so-called pension liberation firms. The independent Pensions Ombudsman has warned that these are designed to avoid rules that would protect savers from bad advice.

And with major pension reforms five weeks away, the fear is that many more could end up being preyed on by pension liberation salesmen. There is already confusion over the new rules, and many savers are mistaken about what these could mean.

Mystery: Stuart Chapman-Clark (right) who was at the centre of the scheme

The problem is knowing when a pension scheme is making a genuine offer or not. Normally when you have a pension, you can’t get the money out until you are at least 55 without a huge tax charge.

When someone leaves a company, they often think the pension they built up with that firm is frozen until they take it. Pension salesmen exploit these fears.

Dennis is one of about 300 people who are known to have put money into two pension schemes that invested money in storage units held by a company based near Burnley.

One scheme is Capita Oak; the other is Henley Retirement Benefit. Savers in both have received correspondence from an address at a business park close to Liverpool Airport.

A financial adviser helping some of these savers says around 60 are struggling to discover what has happened to their funds.

Many were initially cold-called by salesmen. They were asked about their pensions, and told that it was possible to get access to some of their savings before the age of 55.

Many were told they would be given a loan, which they could spend now, and meanwhile, their pension would be moved from their current scheme and invested into storage units owned by a firm called Storefirst. In these investments, they would make a guaranteed 8 per cent a year for two years, some savers were told.

Dennis, who had just gone through a relationship break-up, needed money for a new home. The former postman had built up 20 years in the Royal Mail pension scheme. But having left nearly a decade previously, he was concerned the money was now frozen.

In fact, like many final-salary schemes, his benefits were being increased by inflation every year. Had he taken his pension at 60, he would have received an annual pension of £7,250, which increased in line with the cost of living.

So lucrative was this deal that Dennis would have had to save about £290,000 to buy an equivalent income for life on the open market.

Those who signed up with Capita Oak or Henley Retirement Benefit initially received letters welcoming them to the pension. Typically, though, alarm bells started ringing after a year when they didn’t receive an annual pension statement.

John Jewitt, 47, transferred £72,000 to Capita Oak from an NHS pension after being contacted by a salesman. Like others, he was offered a loan and a return of 8 per cent.

John, from Sunderland, who works as a site manager for a school, says: ‘It sounded like I could really boost my pension. But now I’m really worried I won’t see my money again.’

Jane Parker, 50, from Kidderminster, was called by a salesman from a firm called Sanderson Clarke in 2013.

She says she was told that she could get a lot more money for the two pensions she had built up while working as a floor manager at Boots and Mothercare.

Follow the money: Businessfirst centre in a business park in Speke, close to Liverpool Airport

A salesman then visited her at home. She was shown a leather-bound booklet with facts and figures about the scheme. Jane, who has two grown-up children, transferred one £30,000 pension pot to the Henley scheme.

But after that, she heard nothing. She tried to call the Henley office, but felt fobbed off. ‘I was just sucked into the salesman’s spiel about how I would get much more money than I would have received and how wonderful the pension would be,’ she says. ‘He seemed like a lovely man. I don’t know why I did it. It was as though I was mesmerised.’

Typically, Capita Oak savers we have spoken to are in their late-40s and 50s, and have built up sizeable savings in final-salary pension schemes at established companies.

Meanwhile, one Capita Oak saver has referred their case to the independent Pensions Ombudsman. It described his case as being connected to ‘pensions liberation’ or ‘pension scams’.

In its ruling, the Ombudsman described how the trustees of Capita Oak had failed in their duty to allow the saver to move their money out of their investments.

And it says: ‘Mr X has opted out of, and transferred away from, a secure and generous [pension]. There is little doubt that it was against his best interest to do so.

‘He transferred to Capita Oak, which is of a type that is designed to avoid regulatory obligations that would otherwise limit scope for abuse and/or bad advice.’

COMMENT: Why is no one being held to account?

By James Coney

How on Earth is it possible for savers who invested tens of millions of pounds not to know where their money has gone - and for no one to be held accountable?

That is the question that’s on the lips of those who ploughed their money into the Henley Retirement Benefit and Capita Oak pension schemes.

In just 33 days, major reforms will begin, giving savers freedom to take their life savings in more ways than they have ever had before. But with this choice comes an opportunity for pension liberation firms.

It’s a risk that the authorities are aware of - and yet, so far, they seem utterly toothless in their attempts to crack down.

The concerns over the cash invested in Henley and Capita Oak highlights these dangers.

You’d think that when hundreds of savers are fearful of ruin, the authorities would swing into action. Yet only insolvency experts seem to be investigating. The Pensions Regulator can’t help. And the City watchdog seems to know nothing.

Attempts to contact the 33-year-old man at the centre of this riddle have proved fruitless. A number of trustees of the schemes have walked away.

It’s impossible to get answers over where exactly the pension money is invested and what it is worth. And the trail of the profits savers should have had takes you from the UK to Gibraltar and then the West Indies.

More than £500,000 has already disappeared in fees from one scheme. Even more concerning is that both seem to have been properly authorised with HM Revenue and Customs and The Pensions Regulator.

Because of a vacuum in the rules, it is relatively easy to set up a pension scheme.

On top of this, if you are persuaded to transfer your funds, your existing pension scheme is not allowed to stop you moving the money - no matter the doubts they may have.

This catastrophic failure of regulation needs to be addressed, and now - before thousands more workers move their life savings into schemes where their money may never be seen again.

The Ombudsman found in favour of the saver and describes the trustees’ failure to respond to questions as ‘maladministration’. The Ombudsman asked the trustees to pay back Mr X’s pension, but added that ‘sadly even if [the trustees] respond, he may find that some or all of the money is no longer there’.

So what has happened to savers’ money? The trail begins with sales firms Sanderson Clarke and Jackson Francis, who many savers in Capita Oak and Henley Retirement say initially contacted them. Both of these businesses, which are now closed, operated from a building in a business park in Speke, close to Liverpool Airport.

A sign outside the park carries the name of a company called Businessfirst. This is a sister company of Storefirst, which owned the units the pension money was invested in. Both firms have the same parent company, Groupfirst.

So savers’ money was passed from their original pension schemes to Capita Oak and Henley. Here, the money should have been looked after by trustees, who are essentially company directors responsible for safeguarding the pensions.

The cash from the schemes was then used to buy the Storefirst units. This is where the money largely still seems to be invested.

Groupfirst boss Toby Whittaker has told Money Mail a company called Transeuro represented the Capita Oak and Henley schemes. He says that it made the investment on behalf of the two pension schemes.

Mr Whittaker says that Transeuro drove a hard bargain, bought a substantial number of store units and chose prime positions. Transeuro also negotiated to have two years’ worth of returns paid straight away in a single, upfront payment.

Mr Whittaker says the transactions went through normally, and the returns were paid as agreed.

But savers say that they haven’t been told how they will profit from this transaction.

Mr Whittaker claimed that the deal was brokered by a man called Stuart Chapman-Clark, who was also a director of cold-calling firm Jackson Francis.

Mr Chapman-Clark, 33, has a number of directorships to his name, including pension firms, many of which are now dissolved. Until recently, he ran a firm called Speke Administration Services, which again is based from the business park in Goodlass Road, Liverpool.

An insider told how, at one time, more than 20 call-centre workers were targeting customers. The business was shut last year. A worker told us: ‘One day, he just came in, made a statement to the staff, told them he was going and that was it. Nobody has been seen since.’

Money Mail has made numerous attempts to speak to Mr Chapman-Clark without success.

Savers hope they may at least be able to get back some of their original capital. However, they are concerned they won’t receive any of the 8 per cent paid by Groupfirst to Transeuro, which is based in Gibraltar.

In turn, its company director is listed as another firm based in Nevis, in the West Indies.

A number of directors of Imperial Trustee Services, which looked after the Capita Oak scheme, have quit in the past 18 months. A new director has appointed an accountancy firm to investigate where the pension money is now held.

A report issued by the accountants reveals how Capita Oak received £10.8million between July 30, 2012, and the end of September 2013.

About £83,000 was paid out in lump sums over the period. However, another £541,775 was taken in administration fees. The remaining £10.1million passed to a law firm, which handled the investment, while a balance of £70,162 has remained held by Imperial Trustee Services.

The accountants say that while the funds transferred have been accounted for, it is impossible for savers to get any money out until the assets they hold have been valued and more is known about the investment return.

Henley Retirement Benefit has been taken over by a trustee company called Timoran Capital Trust.

A spokesman for Timoran said it was investigating the assets of the scheme. He said that once this had been done, he was hopeful that savers would eventually be able to take their cash.

The Financial Conduct Authority and The Pensions Regulator would not comment.